Eating Vegetables: Can you eat too much Veggies?

2

Replies

  • ibleedunionblue
    ibleedunionblue Posts: 324 Member
    Thanks for replies.

    1. Not eating many fruits because of higher sugar content, but I'm not adverse to a banana or apple in moderation.

    2. Most veggies are raw. Last night I did boil some frozen green beans & had a salad. Also not adverse to steaming, boiling, or adding veggies to a vegetable lasagna recipe I made.

    3. I do wonder how some consume enough calories eating veggies. I was between satisfied and full after dinner yesterday and was 400 calories under BMR. Then I ran 10 miles, (calories estimated by HRM) so in total I was 1000 calories under TDEE.

    Lots to learn, but I am really striving for more nutrient dense foods, and trying to avoid unhealthier options.
  • summer8it
    summer8it Posts: 433 Member
    As long as your digestive system can handle it and you're hitting your other macros, eat as many veggies as you like.

    But why are you using fat-free dip? Swap it for dip with some fat in it. A lot of the nutrients in vegetables are fat-soluble, so you won't get the benefit of them unless you are also consuming some fat. Also, you're in maintenance but still losing, and training for a marathon... you can afford a few more calories by way of real ranch dressing and hummus.
  • kris727ta
    kris727ta Posts: 44 Member
    No you cannot eat too much veggies! And potatoes are not bad to eat either (unless you are frying them or topping them with butter or other fatty substance like sour cream). A plant based diet is the healthiest diet on the planet. Plants have protein, too. Watch Forks Over Knives. It will explain a lot -- and does not show nasty graphic info about the meat industry. If you want to know more about that then watch Earthlings, its free on YouTube.

    Anyway, most people who don't eat veggies and then suddenly start eating them will have alot of bowel movements because their bodies have been taking longer to move things along. Veggies have a high water content in addition to fiber. I love looking at the amount of nutrients I have consumed at the end of the day.

    Something else you can do on MyFitnessPal is enter the info for a day of food you used to eat, then enter the data with an idea day filled with only plant based foods and compare the difference.

    There are no diseases caused by vegetables and fruits. In fact "let food be they medicine...."
  • AwesomeGuy37
    AwesomeGuy37 Posts: 436 Member
    I don't think it is a concern unless you are getting frequent diarrhea or not getting enough fat and protein. You should also keep an eye on the amount vitamin A you are consuming, as not to consume too much, especially if you take a multivitamin.
  • I usually make sure to have veggies with my meals and fruits as snack in replacements for sweeter sugary stuff. Its possible that you may be eating too many veggies, possibly cut some of it back and add more proteins to your diet. I have found out that too much fiber really wasn't making me feel any better at times.
  • alfiedn
    alfiedn Posts: 425 Member
    You could eat nuts in order to help reach your calorie goal. With so much running, you don't want to eat way too little!
  • Jess732008
    Jess732008 Posts: 98 Member
    As my former Weight Watchers leader told us, "Have you ever heard of anyone getting fat from eating too many vegetables?!?" Eat away!!!

    I got fat eating vegetables.... Cause I ate too many calories.... And cause I have an amazing ability to pack food in my belly....

    Funny thing is I have never had a problem pigging out on veggies.
  • Jess732008
    Jess732008 Posts: 98 Member
    No you cannot eat too much veggies! And potatoes are not bad to eat either (unless you are frying them or topping them with butter or other fatty substance like sour cream). A plant based diet is the healthiest diet on the planet. Plants have protein, too. Watch Forks Over Knives. It will explain a lot -- and does not show nasty graphic info about the meat industry. If you want to know more about that then watch Earthlings, its free on YouTube.

    Anyway, most people who don't eat veggies and then suddenly start eating them will have alot of bowel movements because their bodies have been taking longer to move things along. Veggies have a high water content in addition to fiber. I love looking at the amount of nutrients I have consumed at the end of the day.

    Something else you can do on MyFitnessPal is enter the info for a day of food you used to eat, then enter the data with an idea day filled with only plant based foods and compare the difference.

    There are no diseases caused by vegetables and fruits. In fact "let food be they medicine...."

    Eat to Live is a great book to read about this too and it is pretty cheap on amazon.com.
  • Jess732008
    Jess732008 Posts: 98 Member
    OMG - After yesterday I think the answer is "yes." It was my first day on fitnesspal, after indulging in calorie-dense foods for way too long, so I decided to eat nothing but fruits and vegetables all day. I had a banana, some fresh strawberries, 5 baby carrots, a cup of raw cauliflower, an apple, a raw celery stick, and a bowl of steamed kale. My intestines did NOT know what hit them! LOL I woke up at 2:00am with gas and abdominal pain so bad. I know that it won't be a problem going forward - it was just a bit too radical. Today I'm fine, and hungry. But I plan to stick to my allotted calories if I can stay strong!

    I did that before one day during the week and the rest were normal weight loss days. I ended up losing 4lbs that week.
  • Bernadette60614
    Bernadette60614 Posts: 707 Member
    Check out ORAC, which is a rating of foods which reduce oxidation. Veggies are gold!
  • Arranna1212
    Arranna1212 Posts: 143 Member
    Some guy drank like 10 gallons of carrot juice in 6 days and died from overdose of vitamin A. But it's better to eat fresh veggies than processed chips. Just eat within your calories and you'll be fine... Unless all of your calories are from spinach...
  • ibleedunionblue
    ibleedunionblue Posts: 324 Member
    I am having restroom problems with urgency.

    I'm very intrigued by the idea of switching over to a vegetarian diet. I see some resources to look at in this thread that I will look up. Thank You. And I also will look more into ORAC values. See if I can find some vegetarian distance runners also on FB and discuss their diets.

    Thanks All. Lots to learn.
  • YoungDoc2B
    YoungDoc2B Posts: 1,593 Member
    How are you "maintaining" on ~1600 calories? You said about 1/3 of your calories are coming from fruits and vegetables...
  • ibleedunionblue
    ibleedunionblue Posts: 324 Member
    How are you "maintaining" on ~1600 calories? You said about 1/3 of your calories are coming from fruits and vegetables...

    No I'm not on 1600 calories. I just gave a recent day for an example.
  • This content has been removed.
  • hmaddpear
    hmaddpear Posts: 610 Member
    Well, if you eat too many carrots you'll turn orange. So there's that, lol.

    I'd forgotten that! How could I? It happened to me!

    Mind you, I was eating about a kilo raw a day (over 2lb), for weeks. My hands went bright orange, and my overall complexion was rather off. Not quite oompa loompa, but definitely not right! :laugh:

    Luckily, it reverses quickly when you stop / cut down radically.
  • ibleedunionblue
    ibleedunionblue Posts: 324 Member
    I wanted to post once more on topic. Taking a class in Environmental Science. Todays reading assignment "eating meat is far less energy-efficient than relying on vegetarian diet... eating lower on food chain (veg diet) puts greater proportion of suns energy to use as food. When feeding grain to a cow, we lose much of grains energy to the cow's metabolism. As energy moves from one trophic level to another, up to 90% is lost to cellular respiration." paraphrasing.

    So anyhow, some science behind a decision to select a more energy efficient diet. As a distance runner / marathoner, I am looking for a sustaining diet. I havent taken full plunge to being a vegetarian, but its safe to say that I'm done with red meat and am limiting myself to 1 serving of chicken, turkey or fish a day.

    BTW, I respect differences of opinion and reasons for and against a vegetarian diet. My reasons have everything to do with diet & energy. And clearly, I need to consume more calories as I continue to lose weight even after going to maintenance. I just checked charts and I am down 15 pounds since early November.

    One thing of note, was tipped off about ultramarathoner Scott Jurek and he wrote a book about his diet & training. I ordered off amazon and am so looking forward to Jurek's book and learning more.
  • lisajsund
    lisajsund Posts: 366 Member
    What is your daily calorie goal?
    What is your BMR?
    Do you eat your running calories back?
    How much protein to you get each day? As an endurance athlete, you need more protein than most people.
    Thanks!
  • you CAN eat too much of anything... It would be really hard with veggies though... excluding carrots/corn/potatos (if you consider that a veggie)
  • caroldavison332
    caroldavison332 Posts: 864 Member
    I doubt it. Look at all the vegans and vegetarians out there. We mostly eat TOO FEW VEGGIES. I eat Dr Joel Fuhrman's gombs diet bitter GREENS like kale, collards, turnsip greens, ONIONS, MUSHROOMs, BEANS, BERRIES AND SEEDS to fight cancer which killed my sister. Most are best eaten raw but some like beans must be cooked to acquire their nutrients. If you start eating lots of beans and cruciferous veggies that protect you from cancer (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts) you can expect some gas but that goes away quickly. Dr Fuhrman think we are hungry for the nutrients in these veggies and that is a part of our weight problem.
  • xiamjackie
    xiamjackie Posts: 611 Member
    ** many
  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
    How are you "maintaining" on ~1600 calories? You said about 1/3 of your calories are coming from fruits and vegetables...

    No I'm not on 1600 calories. I just gave a recent day for an example.

    you said you were still loosing even though you switched to maintenance.

    which means- you aren't on maintenance.

    eat more food if you want to maintane.

    I personally CAN eat to many- I get bloated and feel gross- and then I'm still hungry. There is definitely a "too much" mark for me.
  • ibleedunionblue
    ibleedunionblue Posts: 324 Member
    you said you were still loosing even though you switched to maintenance.

    which means- you aren't on maintenance.
    I officially moved to maintenance a couple months ago. I'm still losing some weight, mostly because I am marathon training and running 70 miles a week. (Approx 90 minutes of exercise in an average day)

    If you would take the time to read the entire thread - I do post what the problem is - I am running 70 miles or more a week. That's a lot of calories getting burned. I'm guessing very few people on here are running 10 miles or more a day. I'm finding it difficult to eat that many calories when so much of my intake are vegetables.
  • JacksMom12
    JacksMom12 Posts: 1,044 Member
    If you are running on a deficit and running 70 miles a week and are unintentionally still losing weight, I'd switch out some of those veggies for trail mix, nut butters, and nutrient-dense foods that don't fill you up so much. Assuming you don't want to keep losing weight.

    Not that veggies are bad, but if its interfering with you meeting a reasonable calorie goal...
  • stronghealthywoman
    stronghealthywoman Posts: 44 Member
    There are some GREAT documentaries to watch regarding the nutritive value of fruits and veggies -- "Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead" & "Forks Over Knives". I think everybody should watch them -- they are VERY Motivational!!. We don't eat NEARLY enough vegetables -- NO WAY to eat too many! Also do some research on Dr. Furhman -- very interesting nutritional information.


    Loved your post!
    I'm a huge believer on juicing and eating raw/vegan.

    Those are amazing documentaries and more people need to watch them.

    Its crazy how people think if too much veggies is a bad thing.

    We all need to eat more, last I checked no one died from eating too much of the good stuff!
  • ibleedunionblue
    ibleedunionblue Posts: 324 Member
    If you are running on a deficit and running 70 miles a week and are unintentionally still losing weight, I'd switch out some of those veggies for trail mix, nut butters, and nutrient-dense foods that don't fill you up so much. Assuming you don't want to keep losing weight.

    Not that veggies are bad, but if its interfering with you meeting a reasonable calorie goal...

    Yeah, I'm in an unintended deficit mode some days. Like yesterday with an 18 mile long training run. Agree that I need to be adding more calories on some days. Will need to hit the grocery and look for some healthy options. Thanks.
  • As a running you should not consume too much vitamin k in your body. Runners tend to lose a lot of fluids while running and when you're losing all your fluids and consuming too much vitamin k, you're heading for a disaster (Stroke). The vitamin K in your blood reacts with the enzyme gamma-glutamyl ... proteins can bind to cells and make them gel together to thicken your blood. Thicker blood means your heart needs to work harder. Please be very careful with the consumption of vitamin K (Green Leaf Vegetables).
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIEapnX9F3g
  • Firstly - CONGRATS on reaching your goal! (*)

    And when it comes to veggies honestly I don't think there's much that can go wrong with eating 'too much' veggies.

    Fruit - yes because of the sugar, veggies, not so much. (Think vegetarians, vegan).

    If I'm particularly famished for whatever reason, I will portion out more veggies because essentially I think of it as 'free' calories. "Free" as in I can have an absurd portion for very small amount of calories compared to protein. For example, I can have 2.5 cups of veggies for less than 70 calories (baked broccoli, mushroom, green beans, carrots, spinach mix) ... that's a win-win in my book. ;)
  • chubby_checkers
    chubby_checkers Posts: 2,352 Member
    You must have some epic bathroom experiences. Lol. I used to eat 11-13 servings of fruit and vegetables a day. It became a really expensive habit. I strive for 5 vegetables and 1 fruit servings a day, but usually end up with 4-5 servings total. Like others said, as long as you're getting your fats and proteins, you're probably ok.
  • tjohnoconnor
    tjohnoconnor Posts: 58 Member
    Don't worry about the fiber. Fiber is a good thing. Complex carbohydrates are carbs with 2 or more grams of fiber for every 100 calories. Fiber is a carb. but unlike other carbs. they don't digest. While the body is trying to digest the fiber it is burning 7 calories for every gram of fiber consumed. The fiber passes through your digestive system cleaning it out. Soluble fiber follows along behind it and further cleanses the walls in the digestive track. This fiber and cleansing greatly enables the body to better absorb all the macro and micro nutrients we consume. Check the amount of fiber you are consuming and subtract that number from your carbohydrate grams to know your net carbohydrates. We pretty much can all agree that humans are pretty adaptable to a variety in foods. Healthy Eskimo's don't eat the same way as healthy Samoans or Italians. To ask if you can eat too many veggies would be tantamount to telling a Vegan they will never be healthy unless they eat meat. Since you are increasing you veggie portions ensure to drink enough water to avoid compaction and substitute the fat free dressing with something with fat in it. You don't get fat from eating fat. Fat makes you fat if you eat too much of it, just like the other macro nutrients do.